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With my students, I constantly strive to review important math skills with something easy to implement, but meaningful to my students. Where I teach, students go to middle school after fourth grade, so I work diligently to prepare them for this transition – including how to work independently. This past month, I introduced a new center activity for my students – Self-Checking Clip Cards, and they have been an INSTANT hit! Not sure what these are? Read below as to how I have been encouraging my students to work independently with these worthwhile cards.
What are Self-Checking Clip Cards?
Self-Checking Clip Cards are double-sided task cards. This means that one side of the card (the front) has the problem with four different answer choices. The back of the card has the correct answer! When creating these cards, I wanted my students to get immediate feedback and I love hearing the AH-HA! moments (don’t we all as math teachers?!) When students can immediately check their work, they can address and correct any misconceptions they might have. I have found that when my students work together on the cards, they are having rich discussions and debating the correct answers!
How Do My Students Use These?
All your students need are a prepared pack of cards (see the next question below on how to put the cards together!), a recording sheet, and either a paper clip (check out those cute animals!) or binder clip – I always love picking out some colorful clips for my students to get them excited that this is a special activity.
When working in the activity, students pick a card, read the question on the card and then solve for the answer (they can use the workspace provided). Once students have solved, they locate the answer on the right hand side and put the paper clip or binder clip on that answer. Then, students flip over the card – if there is a smiley face underneath the clip, your student is correct!
What is the Best Way to Put the Cards together?
My Self-Checking Clip Cards print two to a page, so for the 24 questions included in each pack, there are only twelve pages to print! Once you print on whatever color you like (I love a bright set, like this one!), cut each long rectangle out. Fold each rectangle on the bolded line in half – now, you have a double-sided task card!
For durability, I like to glue the two sides together – I find that as I laminate and cut them, this helps hold them up! Then, I laminate my cards (want a great laminating hack? check it out HERE!). When cutting out the cards from the laminating sheets, I like to include a small laminated border – this also helps keep the cards intact, especially when students are using them!
I like to store ALL of my Self-Checking Clip Cards in a photo case specifically for my clip cards – I even like to store a few paper clips and binder clips in each case! This makes it easy to find the activity and then I can store and sort the cards by skill. I always run the photo case cover and “How to Use” instructions for each photo cases.
What Packs Do You Currently Have?
I am currently working on MORE Self-Checking Clip Card Packs and am planning on expanding to more grade levels (I’ve been selfish and have been working on fourth-grade topics for my own classroom!). Click below to check out what I’ve been working on:
- Classifying Angles
- Factors and Multiples
- Multiplication and Division Fact Families
- Place and Value of Multi-Digit Numbers
- Telling Time to the Nearest Minute
Self-Checking Clip Cards have been a GAME CHANGER in my classroom and one of my favorite ways for my students to independently work on important math skills – I’m sure this will be a hit in your classroom as well!
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